Montenegro

Over the summer we rented bikes in Montenegro, packed up two panniers each and hit the road, cycling from Podgorica to Plav and Gusinje, then to Koplik (Albania), Shkodra, eventually to Tirana, and finally back up along the Albanian coast to where we first started. Watch the journey unfold in our five-part video series below: Part One: Podgorica to Gusinje Part One covers our trip from Podgorica to Plav, then to nearby Gusinje. We stopped in Plav and talked to Alsen Radončić, volunteer at National Park Prokletije, about tourism and investment in his part of…continue reading →

It seems like each day on our bikes has brought new and unexpected challenges, and we've learned to never take the distance on a map as an indicator of navigability by bike. But today, for our last day on the road, we were given the gift of an easy trip to Podgorica. It almost seems like an anticlimax after putting so much sweat, blood and tears into the trip thus far, but mostly we're just glad to be back safe with all of our appendages and most of our gear. We started the…continue reading →

The ride from Koplik to Shkoder seemed like just minutes after our ordeal from the previous day. After our day in the remote mountains, we were glad to coast into the city's frenetic streets and finally be among human beings again. Our first goal was to connect with Dr. Arjeta Troshani, Dean of Shkodra University's Economic Faculty. Stephanie had met her a couple weeks earlier during her time in the Balkans with International Peace Park Expeditions, and she seemed like the perfect person to tell us about tourism and cycling in Albania. With a…continue reading →

We thought our luck had finally run out when we crossed the Albanian border and the smooth, paved road immediately turned to gravel under our tires (for the next 70+ km). We knew things were worse when the coasting downhill we'd expected turned out to be more uphill, and the road deteriorated from grated pebbles to rim-bending boulders. We made it about 10 km into Albania in the first 6 hours of riding—the amount of time we'd budgeted for the entire day's journey to Shkoder. Then, things really got worse: the road momentarily got…continue reading →

Our exploring and filmmaking in Plav went extremely well, mostly owing to the enthusiastic team behind Prokletije National Park. It didn't hurt that the food was fantastic and our hotel was perfect (read: cheap). We conducted interviews with the park's director, Enko Dreskovic, as well as Alsen and Irfan, two key volunteers who impressed us with their dedication to rebuilding tourism in their home region. The team also took us on an afternoon outing in and around the park, giving us ample opportunities to capture its dramatic beauty in high-definition video. The town…continue reading →

After picking up our bikes from the awesome folks at Tempo Bikes in Podgorica, we headed towards Plav, a small mountain town in northern Montenegro. Buses between Podgorica and Plav were too small to fit our bikes, so we had to take a larger bus to Andrijevica, fortunately just a smooth and scenic 20-km ride from Plav. We were treated to gorgeous mountain and river views the whole way, and friendly traffic that honks in greeting rather than scolding. Upon arriving in Plav, we touched base with the office of Prokletije National Park…continue reading →

During the next few weeks we'll be biking through Montenegro and Albania, two countries that make up the Balkan Peninsula, where we'll be producing a video for International Peace Parks Expeditions about the transboundary park National Park Prokletije. We'll also make a series of videos and supplemental media about bicycle infrastructure in the Balkans, as well as documenting the humor and challenges of our own experiences traveling by bicycle. continue reading →